Live Q&A: The Future of AI in 2025. Join the free webinar with AI expert Patrick Klerks on February 6
During the week of February 10, Bitcoin’s price collapsed like a house of cards once again . A software design flaw, known since 2011, was exploited by malicious actors to flood the network with fake transactions. Tokyo-based Mt Gox, one of the first online exchanges for trading the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, filed for bankruptcy .
A leaked document shows that criminals managed to steal large amounts of bitcoins from belize mobile phone number list the company thanks to this software error. A total of 744,408 bitcoins have disappeared, representing a market value of around 360 million dollars. People who entrusted their money to this intermediary can therefore kiss their money goodbye.
Bitcoin is bad
Economists have warned about the above scenario several times. After all, no central authority guarantees this virtual currency. Investing in the extremely volatile bitcoin is therefore equal to pure speculation. It is the new Tulip mania. In fact, it is a new pyramid scheme from which only the founders benefit.
Finally, the currency has also been discovered by criminals and is widely used to launder money. Bitcoin is therefore purely “bad”, as Paul Krugman, former Nobel Prize winner in economics, recently proclaimed. So bad, that Senator Joe Manchin in the US has asked federal regulators in an open letter to ban the currency .
A coin with two faces
The story around Bitcoin is complex. If you explain it well, you will tell two stories. Unfortunately, the story around the currency is the one that gets the most attention, while it is just the tip of the iceberg. The other story, the much bigger story, is about the underlying software that runs the Bitcoin currency.